ALLEN PARK — In the course of discussing the Detroit Lions’ horrific turnover situation — 15 turnovers in the last four games — Matthew Stafford was actually asked (in jest) if he sleeps with the football as a way to learn to protect the football.

Uh, the answer was no.

The quarterback and everyone else involved with the team knows the Lions have to cure their turnover-itis. A great place to start would be Monday night’s game against the Baltimore Ravens at Ford Field.

Prior to Sunday’s loss at Philadelphia, FOX NFL analyst Jimmy Johnson said the Lions have enough talent to win it all if they weren’t a sloppy team.

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Johnson is a smart guy. If the Lions can keep the ball under control they have a good chance of winning the NFC North.

“Turnovers have killed us, we’ve seen glimpses of how special this team can be and how special this offense can be when we get out of our own way,’’ said running back Reggie Bush who has fumbled four times this season.

“Like coach said there’s no other way to say it, just hold onto the ball. Don’t turn it over. We’re all grown men, we all have a job to do, we’re here for a reason. We play at this elite level for a reason so don’t turn the ball over,’’ Bush added.

This season the Lions have fumbled 26 times, losing the ball on 14 of those occasions, while their opponents have fumbled 15 times, losing five. In the snowy conditions on Sunday, they had seven fumbles and lost three. (The Eagles playing in the same conditions fumbled once but recovered it.)

Stafford has thrown 27 touchdowns and 14 interceptions. He didn’t throw an interception in Sunday’s loss at the Eagles, but in the previous five games he had thrown 10.

“You just keep working at being as consistent as you can and try to get the turnovers out of the system,’’ Stafford said. “We can’t have them and it’s tough to win football games when you turn the ball over. We know that. We’re doing everything that we can to correct it.”

The quarterback said everyone — himself included — has to work on good habits.

“If you’re a running back, you’re trying to hold it high and tight. If you’re an offensive lineman or a tight end or somebody blocking or a quarterback, you’re carrying out your fake, you’re getting there and covering so if a guy does happen to fumble the football you’re jumping on it,’’ Stafford said. “For me, I’m trying to make as good of decisions I possibly can and challenge myself during the week every day in practice to make the best possible decisions and let that carry over to Sunday.”

“It’s worrisome. I’ve said week in and week out it is a physical mistake,’’ Burleson said. “I’ve been on teams where you get run off the field and you’re just not good enough to play. For us, as bad as it sounds, I’m not trying to discredit teams that are beating us, but we’ve had turnovers and still had a chance to win games. which is good in a way but also bad. It speaks volumes about mistakes costing us games, but it also tells a story that if we don’t turn the ball over we could possibly walk away with double-digit leads in some of these games.’’

What might be more worrisome for the Lions, who are early 6-point favorites, is that the Ravens’ defense has developed a reputation for creating turnovers.

“The physical errors, even Joique (Bell) fumbling it makes everybody aware of protecting the ball,’’ Burleson said. “Fumbles that happen during the game aren’t just a reflection of one player, it’s a reflection of the offense. So now coming into Monday facing a Baltimore team that ball-hawks and loves to knock the ball out, they’re very similar to Chicago in that sense.

“They’re going to be coming after me thinking we saw Nate fumble once this year, he has basically one arm and Joique fumbled last week so we’re going to try to get the ball as much as possible,’’ Burleson said. “So everybody has to be aware.’’

It seems awareness is not an issue. It is the correcting process that needs work.

Sleeping with the football may be a little extreme, but whether it’s catching more footballs out of Jugs machine or just focusing in, the Lions have to figure this out. And soon.

About the Author

Paula Pasche is a longtime sports writer for The Oakland Press and blogs at http://oplions.blogspot.com/. Author of book, "100 Things Lions Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die." Follow on Tout and Twitter @paulapasche. Reach the author at paula.pasche@oakpress.com
or follow Paula on Twitter: @PaulaPasche.